Why Try A New Genre at This Point in My Career?
You might be wondering, as a full time voice actor with pretty stellar commercial bookings, why would I go after a new, and frankly uniquely different genre now? Well, if you are new to my blog you might not know that my twins left for college this year. So at the age of 45 I became an empty nester in the snap of a finger. My life was turned upside down and for someone life me downtime is not desirable. I need to be busy every second. The notion of learning a new skill set, something I could get lost in and spend hours studying, became very appealing. When I started in voice over many years ago, long before I ever had a single client, I looked at the study of the craft of commercial voice over as my full-time job. It served me well. My passion for a given genre can lead me to success when I apply that passion to the detailed study of it. So, non-fiction audio books, here I come!
Working With an Awesome Coach
As a voice over coach myself, I can tell you that learning from a top coach is essential to success. I started to work with Sean Pratt. He is a perfect fit for me. If you don’t know Sean, he has a very specific curriculum. He takes you through both the craft or study of how to work on the copy, and also teaches you about the business side of audiobooks. I LOVE my lessons with Sean. I love the homework he gives. I can actually feel myself learning. I very much enjoy working through the assignments. The challenge, the struggle, is something I have not had for years. His curriculum is excellent. I am confident that next year, after going through all of the lessons, I will be prepared to work in audiobooks.
Applying the Skills
In our last session Sean told me it is time to start putting myself out there and auditioning on ACX. Sean advised me that I need to get titles under my belt. Fortunately, I have a sense of where my voice fits in and what kind of texts I want to read. I seem to have a decent booking ratio here too, and in the first two weeks I actually booked two books. After doing my elated happy dance in the booth and celebrating with my husband, the real work of recording the books began!
What I didn’t Know…. The Tech
Well, if I thought I was learning a lot from Sean in terms of technique and craft, I can’t tell you how much I learned from actually working on a book. Initially I began marking my script in iAnnotate just as Sean recommend. I was using my trusty Apple Pencil and quite happy. I realized I needed help with iAnnotate so I paid for Karen Commins’ videos. They are outstanding by the way, as are all of her resources, and if you are new to audiobooks like me her website is a must visit!
Organizing the audio and staying organized was the next part of the learning. I found myself writing notes both on the iPad and in my booth. I also found myself creating lots of different subfolders in dropbox that were new to me due to the length of the audio.
I was quite pleased with everything and it was time to upload it into ACX when I hit my first major snag. ACX has something that analyzes your audio when you upload it. I had processed it same as I always do for commercials and eLearning. The same stacks that make producers all over the world happy got flagged. I learned about something called and RMS and apparently my number was too high, which actually meant my sound was too low. If you are on Twisted Wave, this is the meter on the right side. Well, I was in a panic. I had no idea what to do.
All these years as a full time talent and it was like I was starting over. I was at a total loss. I called an engineer who does commercial and explainers and he told me to normalize it. I did that and I was still not within the range. If an engineer who went to college and graduate school for this couldn’t help, how on earth would I sort this out? I went to YouTube and I did find videos with others talking about the issue, but most of them used Audacity or Audition as their DAW, not Twisted Wave.
In the midst of my break down in the booth, I heard from a friend and fellow coach Jack de Golia. G-d his timing was good. He told me I needed to reach out to George Whittam (AKA George the Tech) for a specific stack just for audio books. Hallelujah. There was hope in site. If you don’t know George, you can actually pay for 911 emergency service to get bumped to the front of the line in cases like this, otherwise it takes about a week.
I got online and both emailed and Facebook messaged George. George is a G-d-send, and angel, and a genius all wrapped up in one. To me delight he was available and helped me right away. I followed the steps of sending my audio and my gear. George followed up, within the hour, (I actually think it was less) of sending me a stack and a video just for me about how to work with all of this.
I got lucky. George happened to be free when I needed him and I had a friend who could point me in the right direction. Crisis averted! This is the very short abridged version of the story that skips the details of missed dinner, a very supportive husband who tried hard to do what he could, and me acting like a toddler having a tantrum. The good news is that very night I submitted the book to the ACX specs. I wish I could say I behaved better, but I did learn so much!
Sometimes the stars just aline and you are graced with the presence of brilliance. On Friday, fellow VO coach Diana Birdsall and I were lucky to have the amazing voice actor and personal brand strategist Jonathan Tilley in our Clubhouse room. Many know Jonathan from both his courses League of List Builder at nd My Content Calendar, and if you don’t know Jonathan you should. He is both a generous soul who gives his best to help everyone he talks to and a creative genius. From voice actors to models to 
If you’re like me, you might be surprised to know that there are still BOTH videos and reels!! A reel is a sub-genre of a video. As mentioned before, IGTV, which was the YouTube of Instagram, is gone now. Videos are vertical. Reels do have certain characteristics:
I consider the is to be the “Golden Rule” of voiceover! Whether a job is worth $200 or $2000, I treat every single client the same. If a new student books a single lesson or a five pack, they too are treated equally. First, I truly cherish each and every booking. Whether as a talent or as a 
One of my values is respect of everyone’s time. In the last year, I made a shift to using Calendly to book meetings and sessions. Automating bookings has been a huge improvement not just to my quality of life, but is also a giant nod of respect to my own time. There is no longer a repeated back and forth just ti schedule a 20 minute introductory zoom. Or when a student needs to book a session they have paid for, I no longer waste their time waiting for me to confirm a booking. It all happens seamlessly, which benefits everyone. Another way that I try to be respectful of everyone’s time, whether it is in a Clubhouse or a live session, is that I always am mindful of how much time has been booked. If an hour has been allotted, I try to work within the hour, and not run over. I always keep in mind everyone has a schedule.
Try to be giving when you work with clients. Don’t nickel and dime them, try to think of the big picture. When you go out to eat, and you ask for extra of something, how do you feel when the waitress immediately snaps about extra charges? Even if there are extra fees, there are pleasant way to introduce them, and then there is a tone that makes you seem like an anxious money grubber. Recently the traversing rod in my bedroom broke. I had to reach out to the local upholstery man, John, who had made them to come back and repair them. I had no idea how much he was going to charge and I had to call him repeatedly to beg him to do the work. I was worried that with each pleading call the price would go up. Instead, when he came to do the work, he charged me less than I expected. In this scenario, I was delighted by the quality of his work, his turnaround, and hsi fair price. This is how I want clients to feel every time they work with me.
Make it easy for clients to get what they need. Once you have a booking, turn that booking into a repeat client by making it is easy as possible for your customer to get exactly what they need by being genuinely helpful and kind. For example, I happen to have a lot of international clients. Often, the scripts were clearly not written by a native English speaker, and they need revision. I offer Copy Writing. If the changes are minimal, I do not charge. If the changes are quite involved, I send a helpful and caring note and suggest my usual hourly rate for this before I move forward.
